Writing My First Paper: Links to useful articles

I have recently begun to take steps down the long and winding road to publishing research from my Msc Dissertation. To help make my journey easier and in an attempt to prevent myself from 'lost', I conducted a quick search for articles/chapters on writing publishing work. I was so pleased with what I found, that I decided share links to them in the hope that they could be of benefit to others. Some of them repeat the same advice but for me this just adds to their credibility. Oh yeah, and most of them can be accessed for free!

 If anyone has any tips or advice, or useful papers they wouldn't mind sharing I'd like to hear about them. 

As always, thanks for reading! 

Mike

So here is the list:

From Qualitative Dissertations to Quality Articles: this a paper talks about the authors experiences of turning their Dissertation into Published papers.   This is not a technical paper but reading about someone else's experiences helped me feel more prepared and it was full of good advice. The paper outlines seven lessons the author learned: 1) a summary of dissertation won't do, 2) why a thick description of findings is needed, 3) the advantages of collaboration, 4) the necessity of adhering to guidelines, 5) the need to revise and resubmit is quite common. In particular, the advice on a paper not being a summary of a dissertation, but it is better to be written based one research aim, but it is also important to remember quality over quantity!

Bowen, G.A. (2010). From Qualitative Dissertation to Quality Articles: Seven Lessons Learned. The Qualitative Report, 15 (4) pp. 864- 879.

Available online from:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nova.edu%2Fssss%2FQR%2FQR15-4%2Fbowen.pdf&ei=Zc4nUeOIHeag0QXljIH4CQ&usg=AFQjCNH90ZzpoGeLYvxjs5UMGTUhwEs5Rw&bvm=bv.42768644,d.d2k

Qualitative research articles: guidelines, suggestions and needs: Provides advice on common mistakes to avoid and some practical solutions to them.  It also discusses the difference between Qualitative and Quantitative research and that therefore the criteria for validity and resolvability should also be different. Yardley (2000) provides a bit more detailed overview of this if anyone is interested. 

This can be accessed online from:

http://www.h2mw.eu/redactionmedicale/2011/07/Qualitative%20research%20guidelines_Aout%2009_0860210505.pdf

Crescentini, A. and Mainardi, G. (2009). Qualitative research Articles: guidelines, suggestions and needs. Journal of Workplace Learning, 21 (5), pp. 431- 439. 

Yardely, L. (2000). ‘Dillemmas in qualitative health research. Psychology and Health, 15 pp. 215-28.

How to write publishable Qualitative Research: This was a book chapter I obtained from a quick Google search. Whilst not a published article, it was by far one of the best paper's I read - it was full of useful bits of advice. The common reasons why articles get rejected was particularly useful.  This chapter also contained practical advice on writing an article, criteria for evaluating articles. Overall, it well worth a read. 

It can be obtained from:

http://www.parint.org/isajewebsite/bookimages/isaje_2nd_edition_chapter6.pdf

Starting to publish academic research as a doctoral student: this is useful as it is targeted at graduate students. It discusses the different types of articles that can be written including those based on theoretical perspectives and literature reviews. Uniquely it also discusses other ways to develop academic writing and publications, such as writing paper and book reviews. It was very useful for considering how I could develop a wider scope in my academic writing and publications -  I would add Blogging to the list

!

Stoilescu, D. and Mc Dougall, D. (2010). Starting to Publish Academic Research as a Doctoral Student. The international Journal of Doctoral Studies, 5 pp. 78-92. 

Available online at:

http://ijds.org/Volume5/IJDSv5p079-092Stoilescu299.pdf

Writing your first article: what editors really want: talks about all the stages involved in publishing, and for me this was particularly valuable because I have little experience with the publishing process. Whilst this is written for a particular journal, the advice provided could be taken further. 

Fields, A.J. (2009) Writing your first article: what the publisher's really want. New Zealand Library and Information Management Journal. 

Available online here:

http://conferences.alia.org.au/libtec2009/Documents%20for%20Links/FieldsALIA09.pdf

The Do's and Dont's of Journal Writing:  This paper also discusses some of the common reasons why articles do not get published, with a different section for Qualitative and Quantitative researches - this paper focuses on the difference between a PhD thesis and a journal article. Whilst it is written as a guideline for Journal of Workplace Learning the authors say the advice might  be relevant for publishing in other journals. 

Kekale, T., Weerd - Nederhof, P. Cervai, S. and Borelli, M. (2009). The Do's and Dont's of writing a journal article. Journal of Workplace Learning, 21 (1) pp. 71- 80.

Taking a stand

I once heard that "academia is in a state of polite warfare", and as a PhD student, I think I run the risk of becoming a 'casualty' of that war.My home field of Psychology is fractured - it has many sub disciplines, sub divisions each with their own idea of what counts as 'important scientific research'.  As an undergraduate I could study these debates from an impartial stand point, but now as a PhD student I no longer have the 'luxury' of being impartial. I must decide which methods, theories and ideas to use, and be able to defend my decisions. In other words - I need to take a stand and pick a side in the 'war'.  

One of the biggest debates in psychology is whether is a science.  The notion that psychology is not a science is a insecurity which rests at the heart of psychology, and has lead to the  belief that scientific psychology research is based on numbers, not words.  This idea has been shouted from the pulpits of psychology with great ferocity, so much so, it would not be unreasonable to see it as 'dogmatic'. Without naming names I have met PhD students who blindly accept quantitative as the method of psychology study, and rarely consider the viability of qualitative methods. Some  even mock those who use qualitative methods - seeing  this research as 'second rate' and 'unscientific'.  The idea of whether qualitative research is or is not scientific is a debate for another time, but suffice to say I believe qualitative research is not less objective or valid that quantitative research.    Having this belief sets me apart from mainstream psychology, which is quite risky considering I am trying to enter the field as a researcher. 

We as PhD students do seem to spend a large portion our time trying to be accepted by the academic community. Following the 'in crowd' and accepting dominant beliefs without question would seem to be an easy, direct route to acceptance - especially for those students who aspire to be well respected and win renown.  It could improve job opportunities and limit the risk of being marganisled and, in my case, branded as 'unscientific'.  But, is it the right? What if the minority actually has a better approach? 

This 'debate' seems to run through a lot of what I do at the moment; from deciding what writing style to use, which theoretical perspective to take,  who should be involved in my research and how I will eventually analyse my data. For me, I could not just blindly follow one approach - I need good reason and evidence to decide why I should. I usually go through a process of choosing which approach is best for what I want to achieve, by comparing and contrasting different approaches and whether they 'fit' with the aims of the research. I try to do this regardless of what 'mainstream' psychology accepts.  This could have consequences for my career, but if I decided to use a method which  is ill fitting but would be widely accepted, I would be sacrificing the validity of my research and my own personal integrity.

I realise that by now this might sound a lot like a personal manifesto (*), but these are decisions which all PhD students make and this is why I wanted to write a post about 'taking a stand' in academia.  If anyone else has struggled with deciding whether to take their own path or follow the majority I would like to hear from you, and how you resolved the issue. 

*this could be because I was listening the the Les misreables sound track whilst writing this - it's very good, go see it if you haven't!